Pubmaster sued by W&D over leak

WOLVERHAPTON & DUDLEY Breweries will tomorrow launch a High Court action against Pubmaster, the pubs group that is currently bidding £453m for the brewer, to prevent it leaking top secret commercial data to its rivals.

Wolves has discovered that Pubmaster has passed key commercial details of its brewery business to Bass Brewers and Carlsberg Tetley, its two main rivals. Pubmaster obtained the data while it was carrying out due diligence on the group before the bid.

The information contains full details of all Wolves' beer customers, the value of its free trade loans, its costs, the prices it charges and the discounts it gives. Rival brewers could use the information to steal Wolves' best customers.

Pubmaster is thought to have handed out the information in an effort to find a buyer for Wolves' breweries if its bid succeeds. Wolves has asked Pubmaster for assurances not to pass the data onto anyone else, but Pubmaster has refused.

As a result Wolves is planning to press for a High Court injunction to prevent the pubs group giving the data to anyone else. Wolves is also pressing Bass and Carlsberg Tetley to hand back the sensitive documents. Bass is believed to have agreed, but Carlsberg Tetley has so far refused to comply.

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Ralph Findlay, Wolves & Dudley's chief executive, is said to be appalled by the behaviour of Pubmaster and its advisers.

David Thompson, his chairman, said yesterday: "The fact that such commercially sensitive information has been distributed to our largest competitors is of very serious concern. We have no option but to prevent any further misuse of our data."